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The body representing EU member states has approved agricultural reforms that include a bit more leeway on hemp THC levels where farmer subsidies are involved.

In EU member states, hemp varieties with varying maximum levels of THC can be planted if these are authorised by national regulations. But if a farmer wants EU subsidies, the maximum permissible THC level in hemp is 0.2% currently. Such a low level narrows the varieties available to hemp farmers and increases the risk of a crop being considered hot.

But there has been some progress on this front. Last week, the European Council adopted Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reforms. Among them was eligibility for subsidies will remain if hemp varieties registered in the official EU seed catalog are stable at less than 0.3% THC. This change followed the European Parliament voting in favour back in October last year.

The change represents a major victory for the European Industrial Hemp Association (EIHA).

This is a great day for the hemp sector and another step towards a greener future for Europe, said EIHA President Daniel Kruse. However, if compared to other countries worldwide, 0.3 % is still a low limit; for instance, Switzerland, in the heart of Europe, has a higher number, and other EU countries already work with higher limits as well.

This isnt just the case in Europe some jurisdictions, including Western Australia, have a limit of 1% giving these farmers somewhat of an edge over their subsidised EU counterparts.

EU farmers wanting to take advantage of the higher THC level permissible will need to wait for a while as the new CAP wont come into force until January 1, 2023

EIHA Managing Director Lorenza Romanese indicated there was still much work to be done for hemp to achieve its full potential in the EU.

We need to keep working together, as there are still other areas where hemp deserves to be better regulated, but we are on the right track.

The EIHA represents EU farmers, producers and traders working across all hemp sectors, including fibre, seed and cannabinoids such as cannabidiol.

Excerpt from:
Hemp Victory In The European Union - HempGazette

Posted: Dec 8, 2021 / 07:30 AM EST / Updated: Dec 8, 2021 / 07:30 AM EST

People wearing face masks to help curbing COVID-19 virus spread wait for a train at a subway station in Lisbon, Tuesday, Dec. 7, 2021. Despite having one of the highest vaccination rates in Europe, with 86.6% of its 10.3 million people inoculated, Portugal is scaling up its pandemic response amid the emergence of the omicron variant. (AP Photo/Armando Franca)

GENEVA (AP) The World Health Organizations European region has recorded a slight drop in both COVID-19 cases and deaths last week after facing a string of weekly increases.

The U.N. health agency also noted European Center for Disease Prevention and Control figures showing that as of Monday, all the 212 confirmed cases of the omicron variant identified across 18 European Union countries up to that point had turned up asymptomatic or mild disease. WHO cautioned that its understanding of the omicron variant will continue to evolve as more data comes in about its impact.

WHO said in its weekly epidemiological released late Tuesday that the weekly number of new cases in its 53-country European region fell 2% to more than 2.6 million new cases reported over the last week with Germany and Britain recording the most and 29,000 new deaths over the period a decline of 3% from the previous week.

The incidence of cases in Europe had been rising since mid-October, WHO said.

Globally, it said case incidence plateaued over the last week with more than 4 million new cases reported, though the count of new weekly deaths rose 10% to more than 52,500. The United States had the most new weekly cases, at more than 752,000, marking a 30% jump from the figure a week earlier.

Cases shot up in Africa which has had by far the fewest cases of any of WHOs six regions so far by 79% to more than 6.3 million cases total since the beginning of the pandemic. But there were 498 deaths in the Africa region for the week, a decline of 13% from the previous week.

Overall, the Africa region has tallied more than 153,000 deaths linked to COVID-19, compared to more than 1.5 million in Europe and 2.3 million in its Americas zone, WHO said.

The counts of verified cases and death linked to the pandemic are likely to far underestimate the actual toll, officials have said.

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Follow APs pandemic coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic

Originally posted here:
WHO: Weekly COVID cases dip in Europe after weeks of gains - CBS17.com

The enlargement ofthe European Union toall the Balkan countries offers anopportunity. Without agreat plan, enlargement could prove tobeafailure and fuel tensions, including military ones, writes Dario Velo, Full Professor of Pavia University.

The debate onthe enlargement ofthe European Union toinclude the Balkan countries has begun. Some European leaders have taken afirm stance infavour ofthis enlargement.

Aglance atamap ofEurope isenough toallow one tograsp how two enclaves, acluster ofBalkan countries and Switzerland, stand out within European Unions borders. Behind these anomalies are two different stories.

Switzerland isdeeply integrated into the European Union; not amember state because atthe last referendum, membership was rejected through the resolute vote offarmers fearful oflosing the privileges afforded them bythe Swiss Confederation.

The situation inthe Balkan countries isdifferent. There are historic legacies, aswell asreligious and political problems. Some Balkan states see NATO membership asanessential condition guaranteeing their defence.

Onthe other hand, itisphysiological tocomplete the enlargement, tomake the external borders valid for all the main territories within them. Existing problems and possible means ofresolving them must beanalysed with great attention.

The case ofSerbia isemblematic. Serbia isanimportant country for the Balkan Peninsula. Itrepresented aproblem, culminating inawar. Serbia can help build amore advanced order today.

Serbia has had adeep bond with Russia which has lasted centuries. The bond isreligious; the Patriarch ofMoscow isarecognised authority inSerbia, even atthe political level. The importance ofhim isnot unlike the importance that the Bishop ofRome, Pope Francis, has inmany European countries. This political link, inthe broad sense ofthe term, with Russia has been consolidated over the centuries.

The entry ofSerbia into the European Union could provide anopportunity for progress tobeachieved inrelations between the European Union and Russia.

Interms ofdefending peace, two organisations are active, NATO and OSCE. NATO isincrisis. When Turkey joined NATO, noone could have imagined the expulsion ofthe USAmbassador from the country. This has happened inrecent weeks, even ifPresident Erdogan has had tochange his mind. This isareflection ofNATOs difficulties today. Itisdifficult tosay whether the crisis isdue toTurkey, orwhether Turkey has simply seized the opportunity ofNATOs weakness bystrengthening its own sovereign authority inthe region.

This situation makes growing collaboration between NATO and the OSCE desirable. The latter isbeing called upon toplay anincreasingly important role.

Inthis context, the role that can beplayed bythe Council ofEurope, which includes Russia and Turkey, should not beunderestimated.

The entry ofSerbia into the European Union offers the opportunity for agreat agreement between the European Union, Russia and the USA.

Several solutions are possible. Some countries, which could fuel tensions asadirect consequence oftheir complex internal national composition, could become demilitarised areas. For example, Ukraine, aswell asother border countries.

Medieval history provides parallels. Inthe 9th century, during the Carolingian era, the empire was stabilised byasecurity belt, which divided present-day Germany tothe east and present-day France tothe west, soastoreduce possible friction. This security belt corresponds, approximately, tothe current states ofthe Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and Switzerland. Over athousand years have passed; the story has deep roots.

This Carolingian model could bereplicated tosolve the border problems between Russia and the European Union. This solution would have tactical value, allowing the Union toinitiate ever deeper integration. This tactical solution would facilitate the strategic option ofanEconomic Union between the European Union and Russia. The ultimate goal could beaFederation reaching from the Atlantic tothe Pacific.

The enlargement ofthe European Union toall the Balkan countries offers anopportunity. Without agreat plan, enlargement could prove tobeafailure and fuel tensions, including military ones. Asalways, opportunities come with risks, which must bemanaged with foresight.

See more here:
The Enlargement of the European Union to the Balkan Countrie: An Opportunity for a Great Plan Between Russia and Europe - Valdai Discussion Club

ERBIL, Iraq Iraq repatriated a second wave of more than 600 migrants from Belarus on Friday after they gave up, at least for now, on a disastrous attempt to try to reach the European Union via its eastern borders.

Two Iraqi Airways charter flights landed before dawn in Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan region, then went on to the national capital, Baghdad. At the Erbil airport, a few dozen relatives waited quietly for their family members to emerge, then rushed forward to embrace them tearfully.

One of the returning migrants, Shaho Omar, 27, said he and his friends had been trying to reach Germany and then go on to Britain. But they abandoned their plans after hearing that at least 27 migrants died on Wednesday in a failed attempt to cross the English Channel from France to Britain aboard a flimsy inflatable boat.

What happened to them could have happened to us that shocked us, he said, adding that rough treatment by the Belarus border police and the free flight home offered by Iraqi authorities had persuaded him and others to leave.

The police took our money, they took our phone. They took our food and then came back later and offered to sell it back to us, Mr. Omar said, referring to the Belarusian officers. We didnt even have enough money to buy it back.

Thousands of Iraqis, many of them Kurds, have been caught up in a new migrant crisis in Europe. E.U. officials accuse Belarus of precipitating the crisis by loosening its visa rules in the summer and encouraging desperate asylum seekers to go to the borders of the European Union, then pushing them across in an attempt to punish the bloc for imposing sanctions on Aleksandr G. Lukashenko, the autocratic Belarusian president.

Mr. Lukashenko, who has led the country for three decades, threatened the European Union in May to flood its member states with migrants after it imposed sanctions on him following the forced downing of a plane carrying a Belarusian dissident.

Once they reached Belarus, many of the migrants became stranded in the forests of the region without shelter from the cold, food or water. At times, they were thrust into dangerous confrontations as they tried to make it into Poland, Lithuania or Latvia, all members of the European Union.

Mr. Lukashenko told migrants at the Belarusian border with Poland on Friday that his country would help them go home if they wanted to, but would not force them. Addressing them directly through an interpreter, he said Belarus would provide them with warm clothing and food if they chose to stay.

ReadMore onthe Belarus-Poland Border Crisis

It was his first public appearance at the border since the start of the crisis. He visited a facility providing migrants with food and spoke to Red Cross workers at the camp.

Some migrants have reported being deported from Belarus against their will, including Iraqis sent to neighboring Syria.

In Iraq, the transportation ministry said it had repatriated 608 people on two flights on Friday and has now brought back a total of 1,038 Iraqis from the Belarusian capital, Minsk, after an initial evacuation flight on Nov. 18. But it is not clear how many of the migrants remaining in Belarus will agree to leave voluntarily, with some saying they might want to stay after they borrowed thousands of dollars to pay smugglers to get there.

Iraqs foreign ministry said it has scheduled two more evacuation flights from Minsk on Friday night to Erbil and Baghdad, which would bring the total number of voluntary returnees to almost 2,000 people.

The Iraqi migrants say they are desperate to escape a country where they dont see a future, where jobs are scarce and corruption is widespread. In the semiautonomous Kurdistan region, political and economic power is tightly held by two main political dynasties.

Mr. Omar, a Kurd, came from the northern city of Kirkuk, which sits at the heart of Iraqs northern oil fields and is a disputed territory historically claimed by Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen. He said life was difficult there for Kurds after the Iraqi army retook the city from Kurdish forces four years ago and that he planned to find a different route to Europe and try again after working to save up money.

If I find a better and safe route, I will definitely try again, he said. For now there are no routes thats why I came back.

Mohammed, a friend of Mr. Omar, said the Belarus police in recent days had not been actively sending migrants at the border into Poland, but instead had tried to provoke them into storming the border. Like several others among those returning, he asked to not be identified by his full name for fear of repercussions from Iraqi or Kurdish authorities.

Their main goal was to turn us into beasts, said Mohamed, who is also from Kirkuk. If a person doesnt have any food or a place to sleep, they will storm Poland.

Another migrant, Anjam Azad, from Erbil, said he saw Belarus police getting a group of more than a dozen young men in the forest to make ladders from tree branches to try to scale a fence at the Belarus border with Poland.

Ahmed, 22 and also from Erbil, said he still planned to try to get to Britain, but would wait until summer and try the sea route from Turkey to Greece. Dressed in a black jacket with the hood up, he leaned on a crutch as he spoke.

He said his leg was broken when he was beaten by Belarusian forces and attacked by guard dogs near the border. But he could not seek medical treatment for his injuries because his visa had expired, he added.

I will still try to go back through the Aegean Sea, he said, referring to the smuggling route from Turkey to Greece. Even after all I went through, I will go back because its worse here.

He lowered his voice and leaned in to whisper when asked why he had left.

You know who this place is for, he said, alluding to the powerful families who control the Kurdistan region. It is not for us.

Up to 15,000 migrants remain in Belarus, the European Commission estimated on Tuesday, with about 2,000 near the European Unions borders, adjacent to Poland, Latvia and Lithuania. Since the beginning of the year, Poland has registered more than 37,000 illegal border crossing attempts, according to Polish border guards.

Hundreds are still trying to cross every day. On Thursday, Polish police said that 230 migrants had broken through a border fence with the assistance of Belarusian border guards on Wednesday night, but had been sent back. More than 300 were been apprehended trying to cross on Tuesday.

About 100 men being held at a facility for detained migrants who crossed the border rioted on Thursday, demanding to be released, according to Polish media reports. Polands border guards said Thursday night that the situation had been brought under control.

The media reports said that the group came out of the building where they were being held, shouting freedom and that they wanted to reach Germany. They tried to break through a fence and also smashed windows at the facility and started fires.

About half of the 600 people being held at the facility, which is at a military training ground in the village of Wedrzyn, are Iraqis. The center there was in the process of preparing a flight to Iraq to repatriate a few dozen men who had not been permitted to remain in Poland.

President Andrzej Duda of Poland told reporters on Thursday that the Belarusian regime had changed its method. He said the authorities had relocated migrants to heated warehouses, and were letting migrants try to cross the borders in smaller groups during nighttime.

Monika Pronczuk contributed reporting.

See more here:
Iraqis Return From Belarus, but Some Say They Will Try Again to Reach the E.U. - The New York Times

Brussels, November 25

Concerned by the misuse of political advertising to undermine elections, the European Union on Thursday unveiled plans to help people better understand when they are seeing such ads online and who is responsible for them.

The proposals, aimed at ensuring fair and transparent polls or referendums, would also ban political targeting and amplification techniques used to reach a wider audience if they use sensitive personal data like ethnic origin, religious beliefs, or sexual orientation without a citizens permission.

Digital advertising for political purposes is becoming an unchecked race of dirty and opaque methods, European Commission Vice-President Vera Jourova said. A myriad of data analytics and communication firms work daily with our data to try to figure out the best way to convince us to buy something or vote for someone or not to vote at all.

She said people must know why they are seeing an ad, who paid for it, how much, what micro-targeting criteria were used. New technologies should be tools for emancipation, not for manipulation.

The commission, the EUs executive branch, hopes that the 27 member countries and the European Parliament will have debated and endorsed the proposals in national law by 2023, in time for Europe-wide elections the following year.

Companies like Facebook, Google and Twitter would face fines if they failed to comply.

Facebook, which has faced heavy criticism for its lack of transparency on political ads, welcomed the move.

We have long called for EU-wide regulation on political ads and are pleased that the Commissions proposal addresses some of the more difficult questions, in particular when it comes to cross border advertising, the company, which recently renamed itself Meta, said in a press statement.

Under the plan, political ads would have to be clearly labelled, and prominently display the name of the sponsor, with a transparency notice that explains how much the ad cost and where the funds to pay for it came from. The material would have to have a direct link to the vote or poll concerned.

Information must be available about the basis on which a person, or group of people, is being targeted by the advertisement, and what kind of amplification tools are being used to help the sponsor reach a wider audience. Ads would be banned if such criteria cannot be met.

Jourova told reporters that the sensitive data that people decide to share with friends on social media cannot be used to target them for political purposes. She said that either companies like Facebook are able to publicly say who they are targeting, why and how or they will not be able to do it.

The system would be policed by data protection authorities in each of the EU member countries. National authorities would be required to impose effective, proportionate and dissuasive fines when the rules are broken.

The plans also received a cautious welcome from industry.

Currently each state has its own approach for political ads, so more guidance at the EU level would help promote EU-wide efforts, which is particularly important for smaller companies, said Victoria de Posson, senior manager at The Computer & Communications Industry Association.

But she said that clarification is needed on definitions and targeting requirements and wants the EU to consult industry and civil society representatives to ensure that the new legislative framework sets effective rules and shared responsibilities among stakeholders, thus making the law work better in practice. AP

Continued here:
European Union to limit political ads, ban use of certain personal info - The Tribune